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History and Past Projects

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The primary goal of the summer internship program is to encourage promising young minority students to pursue careers in scientific research by providing them with an introduction to graduate level laboratory research and the opportunity to perform “hands-on” work at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC. The interdisciplinary research performed at NRL gives interns exposure to a variety of fields including materials science and engineering, chemical and biochemical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, computer science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering.

Student Profile - Undergraduate students are primarily recruited from the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI). The student interns have come from Howard University, Hampton University, North Carolina A&T State University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Universities of Puerto Rico (Mayaguez, Arecibo, Rio Piedras), Norfolk State University, Bowie State University, Virginia State University, Florida International University, University of New Mexico, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, Philander Smith College, Alabama A&M University, Huston-Tillotson University, Florida Memorial University, and others. Three hundred and twenty-six minority students have completed research internships at NRL during the twenty-four summers of this program's existence, 1992-2016. This has included 188 women and 138 men from a variety of scientific disciplines: Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics.

Students chosen to participate in this program are expected to be motivated towards STEM and/or teaching careers. Preference is given to students to students whose objectives include an advanced degree in STEM disciplines, as opposed to a medical degree. The average grade point average for selected interns is typically 3.4 out of 4.0. A sampling of recent student projects can be sampled through the links in the left hand navigation.